Millions Spent to Sway Democrats on Health Care

An alliance of groups supporting the health care plan, which works closely with the White House and Democratic leaders, had been spending far less and focusing on fewer districts. But after pharmaceutical companies made a $12 million investment for a final advertising push, spending by both sides for the first time is now nearly the same.

Friday’s page-one Post story about the Blue Dogs suggests a far simpler explanation: Entrepreneurship. In addition to everything else, the Dogs are champion fund raisers. Individual Dogs do far better than garden-variety Democrats when it comes to bringing in contributions from folks with business before Congress, like the insurance industry and the medical industry. According to CQ, their political action committee is the only Democratic PAC to rival the big Republican dogs; in 2009 fund raising it has been bested only by Mitt Romney’s gang.

Industry Is Generous To Influential Bloc

the group has set a record pace for fundraising this year through its political action committee, surpassing other congressional leadership PACs in collecting more than $1.1 million through June. More than half the money came from the health-care, insurance and financial services industries, marking a notable surge in donations from those sectors compared with earlier years,

Health industry invests in state elections

It appears that if they want to see their sweet mandate money pouring in, insurers need o buy stooges at the state level too

Six of the 15 attorneys general who have challenged the new law count health care interests among the top five industries giving to their most recent campaigns, according to the non-partisan National Institute on Money in State Politics.

and we even have some numbers from last year

In 2009, health care companies made up four of the top 10 givers to the Democratic Governors Association and three in the top 10 to the Republican Governors Association. Health interests donated more than $4.2 million to the DGA and $3.9 million to the RGA, which are working to elect 37 governors this fall, a USA TODAY analysis shows.

And of course, why are the money sent to GOP anyway?

The financial burden of expanding Medicaid is a top concern of 14 attorneys general who recently filed a multistate lawsuit challenging the health care law Obama signed into law last month. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott received the most from health care groups, taking in more than $415,000 in his 2006 campaign.Jason Johnson, an Abbott campaign spokesman, said there’s no link between donations and official actions. Given the profits health companies will reap from the new law, “if anything, I would expect these individuals to demand their contributions be returned,” he said.

4 comments

Good write-up edge. It stinks. Both parties, the government, the election process, the press…all corrupt from the top to the bottom, ironically leaving the industry lobbyists as the only people in DC who are actually doing what they were sent to do.

“… the tremendous financial boost that health reform brought to lobby firms in 2009 was greater than even veteran observers expected. “I think it is unprecedented,” Washington lawyer and lobbying expert Ken Gross said about the amount of money spent on the health reform battle.”

The circle of life in the US: industry $$$ –> lobbyists $$$—> politicians $$$ —> $$$industry